Festive loaves in art

Art also gives us insight into the culture of these loaves. For example, a large decorated festive loaf is shown being carried under the arm of a man in one of the miniatures in the Dutch illuminated manuscript the Hours of Catherine of Cleves from around 1440. One with a familiar shape is seen in Bruegel’s The Battle between Carnival and Lent, where one is held under a child’s arm, and also in Bruegel the Elder’s Children’s games (1560, held in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).

In the 17th century, depictions of festive loaves in art become more frequent. A painting celebrating midwinter bakes by the Flemish Hans Francken displays a large vollaard decorated with several patacons, peperkoek, waffles, pancakes, fritters, a letter biscuit, syrup or honey and fine white bread buns. The story is in the detail often missed: the two red flowers shown are hellebores, an evergreen flowering plant also known by the name winter rose and Christmas rose. Next to the flowers appears a dainty little tree made out of wire with golden pendants and red and green tassels. Could this be an early Christmas decoration, perhaps even a Christmas tree? Though at this time people didn’t have a Christmas tree as we know it today.